Is Dick Cheney's Heart the Culprit?

Dick Cheney watchers who've puzzled over the vice president's increasingly rigid, defiant, and tone-deaf behavior are beginning to consider whether could be his heart, literally, that's the culprit. With speculation about the Cheney's "darkening persona" an obsession in the capital, Michele Cottle explores the connection between long-term cardiovascular problems and cognitive decline.

"Very often, the symptoms of vascular dementia's cognitive impairment are brought on by stress," notes Merrill Elias, an epidemiologist and psychologist with Boston University and the University of Maine, adding that such troubles are often "accompanied by anger and mood changes."


(More Dick Cheney stories.)